We spent a week touring before the conference and one of the highlights was East Coast Nature World in Bicheno. They had many different animals, many of which they rescued as orphans or injured animals. They would try to return some of these animals back out into the wild, like the baby wombat we met.

There were kangaroos hopping around everywhere and we could feed them pellet food, which they were really keen on. We were surprised to see something strange sticking out of a mama kanagaroo’s pouch, a foot, and later a head and a foot!

There was a walk through aviary where we saw many interesting birds. I also went to the Platypus House at Beauty Point, but the pictures there didn’t turn out so well.

We were at Nature World at feeding time for the Tasmanian Devils. They were a mixture of cute, ugly, and hungry! They eat bones and all of their food. There is a serious facial cancer, though, that these guys are susceptible to. There are different attempts to treat it or stop its spread. No treatment has been effective. Nature World does some breeding programs to increase genetic diversity. I also saw a news piece on a project to block off a pennisula and monitor a healthy population of Devils there.